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Innocent Kurdish-Americans victimized by
patriot act
21.6.2006
J. Barkley Rosser, Jr. - Ed-Op
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A Travesty of Justice:
Oppressing the Kurds of Harrisonburg, Virginia
On June 26, three Kurdish men in Harrisonburg,
Virginia (Rasheed Qambari, Ahmed Abdullah, and Amir
Rashid) will be sentenced for sending money to Iraqi
Kurdistan without a license to their families and
those of fellow members of their community via the
traditional hawala system (a fourth man, Fadhil
Noroly, will be tried on July 11). This is a felony
offense under amendments to the Patriot Act
introduced after 9/11.
No longer does the transfer have to be linked in any
way to any illegal activity or terrorism, nor does
the party doing the transferring have to know that
what they are doing is illegal. Even the FBI and
prosecuting attorneys agree that none of these
transfers through the traditional halawa system had
anything to do with terrorism or anything of the
sort. Indeed, one prosecutor declared to Rasheed
Qambari during his trial on January 31, "we know
that you are not the bad guys." What is going on
here?
First of all observers should realize how completely
absurd these cases are. Prior to 1996 these men, and
most of the 70 Kurdish families now living in
Harrisonburg in the Shenandoah Valley, were involved
with aiding US and UK aid organizations. In that
year Saddam Hussein attempted to have them arrested
and killed (he succeeded with many who did not get
out). The US government airlifted about 6500 of them
out to Turkey as part of Operation Pacific Haven.
After extensive security vetting in Guam, many were
allowed to immigrate as refugees into the US, with
this group ending up in Harrisonburg. These people
were anti-Saddam and anti-terrorism, literally
dancing in the streets at his overthrow.
Nevertheless, after 9/11, the FBI began visiting
their homes, as well as those of other Muslims in
the Harrisonburg community, asking them about links
to terrorists and terror groups. During these
interrogations these four men all told of their
money transfer activities for the community to help
out their families with medical and other problems.
They were told that this was not a problem. No one
told them that they needed to obtain federal
licenses or that that they were doing anything
illegal. Two of them never made any profits on their
activities (Qambari in particular has translated for
hospitals, schools, and even the courts for free).
The two that made small profits obtained local
business licenses and were under the impression that
this was sufficient.
During the summer of 2006, about eight homes of
Kurds in the area were raided in massive operations
that involved as many as 12 different government
agencies. Families were mistreated and belongings
were seized, including things that did not belong to
those raided (including $20,000 for the down payment
on a house for someone not raided, an amount only
recently returned). On October 19, 2005, the four
men were indicted and were arrested in the early
hours two days later. At their indictment a Croatian
translator was provided, and Ahmed Abdullah spent a
week in jail because he was afraid to answer any
questions due to his inadequate English. On January
31, Qambari was convicted. This led to Abdullah and
Rashid pleading guilty, while Noroly still holds out
for a trial. They face possible sentences of up to
five years and possible deportation. Qambari has
stated that his life will be in danger if he
returns. All four men had applied for US citizenship
(they all are married with children born in the US),
and Qambari had even passed the final exam with a
perfect score, only awaiting his swearing in, when
these events intervened.
There was almost no coverage of this in any media,
only a brief, not-on-the front cover story in the
Harrisonburg Daily News-Record (DNR) that repeated
the prosecution's argument that Qambari was
threatening "the integrity of the US financial
system" by his activities. Since then a movement has
grown in the area, triggered initially by blogposts
by this writer on Maxspeak (whose archives contain
much material) and then appearing in various local
media. The most thorough story on this appeared in
the June issue of the local monthly, Eighty-One, by
Jeremy Nafziger, which can be accessed here [pdf]. A
front page story appeared in the Washington Post on
Sunday, June 18, entitled, "Kurdish Defendants Find
Support in Town's Clasp," by Karin Brulliard. After
two op-ed pieces, several letters, and a petition
signed by over 600 citizens, the very conservative
DNR came out in an editorial on May 8 for "leniency
in sentencing" of the men. Leading this local
movement has been a group called Standing With Our
Neighbors (SWON), which has been spearheaded by
local religious groups, especially many Mennonites
from Harrisonburg. The DNR editorial cited an op-ed
by me, "If I am Deported back to Iraq, I will die"
(titled "An Investigation Gone Sour" in the paper),
which can be accessed at http://cob.jmu.edu/rosserjb.
What has led to this travesty? These cases arose out
of a Joint Terrorism Task Force based in Roanoke
involving many agencies. They searched and searched
and found nothing, but needed to show somebody that
they were doing good. So, they nailed these people
who have done nothing wrong other than try to help
their neighbors, ignorant of the law. Given the
visits to the mosque by the FBI and the general
situation, it is clear that this reflects a broader
anti-Muslim character of these investigations and
the associated lack of respect for human rights. One
can appreciate that this statute might need to be
used against actual terrorists if there is no other
evidence that can be used against them in court
(much as Al Capone was eventually convicted of
income tax evasion). But no one says these men are
terrorists. This is an anti-terror bureaucracy gone
out of control. Prosecuting these men makes as much
sense as when autoworkers in Detroit beat a Chinese
man to death because they were upset at Japanese car
imports. This is an unfair and disturbing
prosecution that indicates how seriously in jeopardy
our rights in America have become endangered by
egregious enforcement of the Patriot Act. I only
hope that the judge is indeed lenient with these
very worthy men.
J. Barkley Rosser, Jr. Professor of Economics and
Kirby L. Kramer, Jr. Professor of Business
Administration James Madison University Editor,
Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization
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